Suncream

We're all enjoying the lovely weather but have you been protecting yourself from the sun's harmful rays? A Sheffield woman with stage four skin cancer is calling for suncream to be publicly available like hand sanitiser. Charlotte Killeya was diagnosed with melanoma in 2020. She wants to make sure people are aware of the risks of sun damage. 

I wrote this story for the BBC News website and filmed and edited this story for BBC Look North...

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Heat Pumps

A Sheffield company that was given millions of pounds of Government grants to install air source heat pumps has gone into administration and has left several customers with faulty heating. Greener Living Ltd went bust in March last year. The company was given more than four million pounds as part of Government efforts to encourage homeowners to replace existing fossil fuel heating with more efficient, low carbon systems. Chesterfield couple Geoffrey and Julie Cox say they’ve been left paying-off thousands of pounds in debt after having their faulty heating system fitted.

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Hathersage Flood Pub live

I reported live from a lovely, historic pub in the Peak District which has re-opened, eight months after being flooded during Storm Babet. The George in Hathersage is 500 years old and was visited by Charlotte Brontë!

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Bradford Clean Air Zone

This week I was reporting on problems some businesses in West Yorkshire have faced since Bradford Clean Air Zone was introduced last September. One scaffolding company says it fears going bust and wants help to be able to buy a low emission lorry but it is not eligible for grants. Bradford Council says the Clean Air Zone is a government directive and so they do not set the rules on who gets grants and exemptions.

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Hospitality Grants

I've been reporting from North Yorkshire on how the hospitality sector is coping with rising cases of Covid. The government's support package was described as 'a drop in the ocean' by both interviewees.

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Brexit Small Businesses

The owners of small businesses in Yorkshire have been telling Look North that post-Brexit red tape is doing real damage to their companies. A cycling clothing business in Leeds has not received stock worth thirty thousand pounds from Europe while a Leeds brewery has had orders from Europe cancelled and found couriers are now refusing to export to EU countries because of the extra paperwork required. The government says it's helping businesses adjust to new processes.

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Boeing Sheffield

I've been along to see the American aeroplane builder Boeing opening a state of the art factory in Sheffield. The plant, which is alongside the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Rotherham, will build components for new aircraft. I put a report together for our main programme...



...and an as live for our lunch bulletin.

Business and the economy come to life!

On my course, when you're a reporter on production days (when we run radio/TV news rooms) you usually put your name forward to cover a story for the day. Last week I decided to face my demon and take on an economics/business story. It's my Achilles’ heel and I'm determined to fill the gap in my knowledge.

My urge to learn more started a couple of weeks ago when my friend Nat visited. We started chatting about house prices, the credit crunch and Northern Rock. He was able to explain it all in a simple way that any decent broadcaster should. So I covered the Consumer Price Index inflation rise in to 2.2% story on Tuesday.

I interviewed the consumer champion Martin Lewis who runs moneysavingexpert.com (who also used to do our course!) which was a great experience having been a fan of his work for a while. I then rushed to Cardiff Journalism School to interview Calvin Jones who did a very good job of explaining in layman's terms how the inflation rise would affect consumers and the economy.

Once I had this material I put it together and it was aired for 'Wales at One' and 'Wales at Five' as a 3 minute feature.You can listen to how I dealt with the story by CLICKING HERE.

And if you'd like to listen to more of my interview with Martin Lewis, CLICK HERE.

I asked Calvin Jones how I can learn the essentials of the economy and business and he recommended a book called 'The Undercover Economist'. I best get reading so that next time I don't have to approach an economy business story with such apprehension!